Zarif in Turkey to exchange view with Lavrov, Cavusoglu on Syria

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has traveled to Turkey to hold a trilateral meeting with his Russian and Turkish counterparts over the conflict in Syria.

Zarif is due to sit down with Russian and Turkish Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu in the southern Turkish resort city of Antalya on Sunday.

The summit comes in the run-up to another tripartite meeting on the Syria crisis between Iranian, Russian and Turkish Presidents Hassan Rouhani, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on November 22.

Iran, Russia and Turkey are acting as the guarantors of a ceasefire in Syria that came during the intra-Syrian talks brokered by the three countries in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

So far, seven rounds of the Astana talks have brought representatives from Syria’s warring sides to the negotiating table in a bid to end the foreign-backed militancy in the Arab country, which broke out in March 2011.

The fourth round of the Astana discussions in May resulted in an agreement on four deescalation zones across Syria, which have sharply reduced fighting in the conflict zones.

The safe zones cover the Syrian provinces of Idlib and Homs as well as the Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus and the country’s southern border with Jordan.

Cavusoglu on Friday underlined the need for a “sustainable political resolution” in Syria in order to preserve the achievements of the Astana peace process in the Middle Eastern state.

“Firstly, we will evaluate what we have done so far, the point we have reached, and the steps that we can take from now on. How can we restore stability and peace in Syria? How can we integrate the Astana and [UN-backed] Geneva [processes]? We will continue our work intensively in the framework of the agreement of the leaders,” he said.